Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1912) Standing nude... Lot 83

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1912) Standing nude woman, back, circa 1898-1900 Graphite on wove paper. Height 32 Width 20 cm. Provenance: former Jacques Loyau collection. Auguste Rodin, ca. 1898-1900. A graphite pencil drawing of a standing female nude seen from the back. Certificate of inclusion in the catalog raisonné of Auguste Rodin's graphic works, by Christina Buley-Uribe, dated April 5, 2024 under number 240401. AN UNUSUAL DRAWING, by Christina Buley-Uribe Rodin the unconventional This beautiful graphite drawing was executed around 1900, at a time when drawing was taking on a predominant role in Rodin's artistic practice. Rejecting studio conventions, the sculptor invited his models to exhibit themselves instinctively rather than "pose" in front of him, thus obtaining a repertoire of spontaneous rather than constrained attitudes. To this freedom of pose was added Rodin's revolutionary method, as he never took his eyes off his models while his hand drew independently on his sheet: "The hand goes haphazardly; often the pencil falls empty; the drawing is decapitated or amputated of a limb [...]. The master never looked at it once". (Clément-Janin) Here, the head has been redrawn at top left. I don't reason, I let myself go "And I know why my drawings have this intensity: it's because I don't interfere. Between nature and paper, I've done away with talent. I don't reason, I let myself be". Rodin would make an initial sketch "à l'aveugle", which he would then transfer to paper, to preserve the initial qualities of his sketch, and then add watercolor. Two stages were therefore necessary in the creation of his drawings: the blind sketch based on a live model, followed by the synthesis drawing. Here, our drawing of Femme debout, de dos (fig. 1) is a first sketch in graphite, from which two watercolors in the Musée Rodin, D. 04669 (fig). 2 and D. 04536 (fig. 3). In the watercolor versions, the drawings are the result of a search for a single, simplified, synthesized line. Our graphite drawing is executed on paper typical of this kind of sketch, and has retained all its freshness. Although it "anticipates" the watercolor versions described above, it cannot be considered a mere preparatory sketch, but a genuine, unreasoned work that Rodin considered worthy of exhibition. Invented around 1896, this style, in which the automatism of gesture and randomness play a predominant role in the creative process, marked a whole generation of painters such as Schiele, Matisse, Picasso, Giacometti...